Annual Day Lily Show at Dighton Community Church will highlight nature’s beauty

Saturday

Jul 12, 2014 at 10:58 PMJul 12, 2014 at 11:03 PM

Everything’s coming up lilies.

The Dighton Community Church will host its 55th Annual Day Lily Show on Sunday, July 20, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Lynne Sullivan Editor in Chief

DIGHTON — Everything’s coming up lilies.

The Dighton Community Church will host its 55th Annual Day Lily Show on Sunday, July 20, from 1 to 5 p.m.

“Many church members, townspeople and the Dighton Garden Club participate by making displays,” said Liz Ruiz, chairwoman of the Day Lily Show, in an email.

“It’s more about sharing the day lilies,” said Warren Leach, of Tranquil Lake Nurseries in Rehoboth, which has donated the flowers for the show for the past 20 years. “It’s kind of a unique community benefit. We’re glad to support that.”

The theme of this year’s show is “Nature’s Beauty.”

Ruiz said there are no plants for sale, but rather the event is held simply to showcase the beauty of day lilies “with the help and creativity of all who make displays.”

“It is going to be slightly different from all the other years,” Ruiz explained. “This year we have about eight local businesses who are participating in creating displays, as well as the Dighton Historical Society. This change will not take away from the loveliness of the lilies, but will help create more of a Community Day Lily Show.”

Some displays are very elaborate, she added, while some also are simple.

“The Dighton Historical Society is going to be doing the biggest display this year,” said Ruiz. “They are going to be filling the Ives Room in the church with several historical displays.”

The altar arrangement will be dedicated to Elaine Varley, founding member of the Dighton Historical Society and Dighton Town Historian for many years, who died June 20.

The Day Lily Show began in early 1960, when Charles Harris suggested that the church — which was then the Dighton Unitarian Church — hold a show after noticing day lilies in several gardens in town. A few years prior, the Berkley Congregational Church had come up with a similar idea, thanks to Rev. Wayne Philbrook and Dighton resident and flower grower Elliott Hathaway.

Church members loved the idea, and Hathaway, who used to breed lilies, donated most of the day lilies for that first show — and did so for many years.

“Each year after that brought more and more visitors,” said Ruiz. “Most of the years since have had a theme.”

Leach said Tranquil Lake still grows two of Hathaway’s breeds: Swamp Yankee and Last Quarter. “Day lilies are ubiquitous, you see them growing along stonewalls on the side of the road,” said Leach, of the flowers that were introduced to this area from China by early settlers. “But you wouldn’t find (Hathaway’s breeds) anywhere else.”

For more information about the show, contact Liz Ruiz 508-272-0208 or elizabethruiz87@comcast.net.